Bailiwick of Conti
Situated on the eponymous island (49.179°N 2.107°W), Conti is a communal republic and mercantile city-state, home to a community of industrious seafarers devoted to the advancement of commerce, the principles of good government and the preservation of true freedom (Libertas). |connectedresources = |bonusresources = }} Instrument of Government The Instrument of Government promotes good governance through deliberative policy-making mechanisms and a collegial exercise of power, centred on the States of Conti and the Council of Ten. The States of Conti is the unicameral legislature of the bailiwick. It consists of 100 deputies elected for a single five-year term. The Council of Ten is the executive governing body of the bailiwick. Its members, elected from among the States of Conti (of which it is a constituent part), are: *The Chancellor of Justice, Keeper of the Seals *The Controller-General of Finances *The Paymaster-General *The Councillor of State for Commerce *The Councillor of State for War *The Councillor of State for Education *The Councillor of State for Research and Technology *The Councillor of State for Health *The Councillor of State for the Environment *The Councillor of State for Public Works The Bailiff, '''elected from among the Council of Ten for a single one-year term, is the titular head of state of Conti and assumes representative functions. The '''States-General is a temporary legislative assembly, consisting of 300 elected deputies, vested with the exclusive authority to review and amend the Instrument of Government. Its promulgations are irrevocable. The States-General can sit for a maximum of 90 days after which it is dissolved and law-making powers revert to the States of Conti. The power to convoke the States-General is the sole prerogative of the States of Conti. The document ascribes five basic functions to the civic authorities: *Uphold the inviolability of private property *Enforce contracts *Preserve the soundness of the currency (ƒ1≃ $100) *Maintain civic amenities *Preserve domestic order Conti operates a single taxation system to finance its public expenditure in the form of a value-added tax of 30 per cent. Conti’s legislation on citizenship is governed by the jus sanguinis principle. Citizenship is acquired at birth if either of the parents is a citizen of Conti. In effect, political participation and the exercise of citizenship rights in Conti’s overseas dominions are restricted to residents of Conti descent. Naturalisation can only be granted by a private act of the States. Although Conti's institutional arrangement and form of government is representative in nature, the Instrument of Government makes provisions for the promotion of direct democracy. Citizens can challenge or propose legislation via referendum if a public petition is signed by a fifth of all registered voters. The right to vote is restricted to adults age 20 or over who fulfill the property qualification - defined as owning a property or ƒ1,000 in business capital. The Guildhall is the seat of government and the nerve centre of the administrative machinery of state. State-Chartered Companies The Company of the Orient (COR) and the Company of the Occident (COC) are mercantile companies established by an act of the States of Conti on 5 June 2009 to further Conti's overseas commercial expansion. Both corporations possess a Charter of Privileges issued by the States guaranteeing special trading rights with territories lying respectively east and west of the Prime Meridian. Conferred privileges include fiscal exemptions aimed at stimulating the growth of trade in raw commodities and securing continuing access to energy supplies, the right to maintain warships, wage war and sign treaties. All military, naval and diplomatic undertakings by the COR and COC are carried out in the name of the States of Conti and the relevant company (COR and COC commanders and chief factors swear a double oath of allegiance to the company and the States). Ships operated or owned by the Company of the Orient have the privilege to sail under the company’s house flag in lieu of Conti's merchant ensign. This privilege was extended on 14 August 2013 to permit its use on land in territories under the company's administration. On 27 August 2011, The Company of the Orient obtained patents from the Council of Ten to undertake the colonisation of territories. The COR is the only and supreme authority in its subject territories under the sovereign supervision of the States of Conti. The Company of the Occident secured similar arrangements on 20 September 2011. Piracy originating from the island of Bali (8.20°S 115.00°E) reached alarming levels by the second half of 2011, dangerously disrupting the COR’s trade with the Indies and driving marine insurance rates to unsustainable highs. The Directorial Committee (the company's board of directors), having recently secured advantageous patents from the Council of Ten, dispatched a naval squadron of four warships to the region on 2 December 2011 (frigates CORS Nemesis, CORS Themis ''and destroyers ''CORS Titan, CORS Leviathan) to patrol Indonesian waters and secure company shipping with the Indies'.' The COR’s expeditionary force stormed north Bali’s main port, Buleleng, on 14 January 2012. A systematic campaign of land conquest ensued culminating in the removal of local potentates and the subjugation of the island to company rule. The sister-islands of Nusa Lembongan, Nusa Penida and Nusa Ceningan fell in quick succession. At a stroke, the acquisition of this first permanent base for its long distance colonial commerce in Asia transformed the Company of the Orient from mercantile arm of the Conti thalassocracy into an imperium in its own right. By contrast, the account of the COR's presence in Singapore (1.30°N 103.80°E) is one of cooperation rather than confrontation with the titular lord of the land. It is under the aegis of the Sultan of Johor that the company established a factory at the mouth of the Singapore River on 27 June 2012. In exchange for an annual tribute of ƒ144,000 and numerous off-the-books gifts to the court of Johor, successive Chief Factors of Singapore have over time extracted a host of privileges and franchises from the sultanate. Most notably, extraterritorial rights for Conti citizens (albeit restricted within the confines of the trading post) and a favourable treaty of navigation signed on 31 December 2015 which guarantees COR ships free and safe passage through the Straits of Malacca. By Favour and Permission The Brittany Company (BC) is a state-chartered, joint-stock monopoly organisation formed by an act of the States of Conti on 14 June 2009 following the purchase of the Dukedom of Brittany, which it rules by favour and permission ''of the States.'' The company's Charter of Privileges reflects the bailiwick’s reluctance to allocate excessive fiscal resources to support its dependencies by effectively privatising the administration of the duchy. The act facilitates the transfer of government functions to the Brittany Company for the duration of its charter with an explicit mandate to enact legislation, exercise police powers and levy taxes (the BC administers its own tax system within guidelines laid down by the Council of Ten), thus conferring upon the company quasi-regal powers nominally attributed to the States of Conti. The BC's charter is subject to review and renewal after 12 years. The States of Brittany, or Dael Breizh in Breton, is the highest judicial body in the ducal lands. The States are composed of delegates from the urban merchant patriciate and hereditary members of the landed nobility. By virtue of the extensive legislative and executive authority conferred by its charter, the Brittany Company has displaced the States and the traditional corporate elite as the prime source of political power in Brittany. For the Dael, which had initially expected from the States of Conti the continuation of their ancient privileges and liberties, the most contentious issue concerns the loss of their extensive fiscal powers. In particular, the States of Brittany insist that monetary levies ought not to be raised without their prior consent. The question of institutional reform, in substance the issue of self-administration and taxation remains a point of contention between the Breton polity and the States of Conti. Having been deprived of their customary rights of consultation and deliberation with the advent of company rule, the States' powers are confined to the exercise of their judicial prerogatives. The States of Brittany only retain limited oversight of taxation in time of war. Situated at the mouth of the Rance estuary on the northern coast of Brittany, the Free City of Saint-Malo (48.38°N 2.00°W) is Conti's major commercial gateway to its mainland dominions administered by the Brittany Company. Owing to St Malo's prominence as the bailiwick's chief emporium on the continent, the States of Conti declared the city a corpus separatum under the provisions of the Charter of Liberties of the Free City of Saint-Malo conceded on 26 July 2009. The charter institutes a council of 12 elected members, collectively known as the Corporation of Saint-Malo, entrusted with the government of the city under the leadership of the Provost of the Merchants. The document confers upon the city all powers of self-governance and privileges associated to free city status and confines Conti’s involvement in municipal government to prerogatives pertaining to defence and foreign affairs. Instrument of War The Naval Service and the office of Captain-General of the Sea were established by the Naval Service Act on 8 October 2009. The Captain-General of the Sea, appointed for a two-and-half-year term by the States of Conti, is responsible for overseeing the administration of the navy under the nominal ministry of the Councilor of State for War. In practice, the office enjoys pre-eminence in all naval policy matters through the direct administration of military shipyards, drydocks, maintenance bases and the Institute of Naval Warfare (founded on 25 January 2014). The Naval Service maintains 27 capital ships in full commission. Standing at ƒ2.31 million, the Naval Service's annual budget accounts for 52.62 per cent of the bailiwick's total military expenditure (ƒ4.39 million). The Naval Service operates three military ports in the home waters: Conti, Brest (48.23°N 4.29°W) and Lorient (47.45°N 3.22°W). On 21 January 2014 the Naval Service and the Company of the Orient established a joint naval station at the foot of the Table Mountain, north of the Cape of Good Hope. Fort Conti (33.55°S 18.25°E) is the bailiwick's only naval facility in the southern hemisphere. By March 2014 the Naval Service had extended its territorial control to Fort Conti's immediate hinterland in order to protect Conti and Breton settlers who had illegally begun colonising the coastal plain abutting the westernmost ridge of the great South African escarpment. The burden of administration of the New Settlements fell solely on the Naval Service as the COR declined to extend its involvement beyond the joint control of the naval station and the posting of a small garrison of company troops. For the Company of the Orient (which views Fort Conti is little more than a way-station for its shipping bound to Asia) had no appetite for extending direct dominion over the city's sparsely populated hinterland. The naval branch of the military is thus paradoxically the largest private landowner in territories under Conti overlordship (with the exception of chartered companies). The first census undertaken on 7 May 2014 recorded 7,062 citizens of Conti and Brittany residing in the New Settlements. The New Model Army Act adopted by the States of Conti on 9 June 2010 created the nucleus of Conti’s first standing army, composed of professional soldiers organised into permanent regiments. The act put an end to the bailiwick’s over-reliance on civic militia (known as the Territorial Service) and mercenary companies for its defence and reformed the long-standing practice of raising temporary armies of paid soldiers in wartime. The Territorial Service, retained as an auxiliary unit of the New Model Army, is entrusted to support civic authorities in preserving domestic order. Responsibility for military commissions and promotions is assigned to the Council of Ten. However the appointment of the New Model Army's Captain-General of the Land Forces is made jointly by the Council of Ten and the States (with the customary phrase: Given the trustworthy account we have received of his virtues and merits, we have chosen him, as by this commission we choose and depute him, to be Captain-General of the Land Forces with all the usual authority, power, honours, prerogatives and emoluments). A States of Conti committee of 'deputies in the field' accompany the Captain-General on campaign and can participate in taking major military decisions. The Air Service is the military aviation branch of the New Model Army. The Military Intelligence Service, created by an act of the States of Conti on 23 November 2013, amalgamates the previously fragmented intelligence, counter-intelligence and operational capabilities of Conti's military branches into a single centralised organisational and command structure. The funding of the Ducal Regiment of Brittany, is a joint-responsibility of the Brittany Company and the States of Brittany. In order to mitigate the effect of rising fiscal pressure, the BC and the Dael Breizh can raise funds necessary to finance wartime military expenditures by jointly issuing interest-yielding bonds. Technology Procurement Fund The Technology Procurement Act enacted on 1 September 2010 established the Technology Procurement Fund with the mission to stimulate foreign direct investment involving technology transfer and facilitate the acquisition of technology by Conti-based enterprises. The fund is the beneficiary of an annual public contribution of ƒ2.16 million. Its Chief Executive spearheads Conti's technology accumulation drive and reports to the Councillor of State for Research and Technology. The Letter of Command is the document of reference for technology deals operated or facilitated by the Technology Procurement Fund. The letter addressed to the fund's Chief Executive is published annually in January by the Councillor of State for Research and Technology in compliance with the Technology Procurement Act. The document sets out stringent procurement objectives for the calendar year. The 2011 letter, the first of its kind, published on 15 January set a target of 500 technology units per month amounting to a total of 6000 technology units for the entirety of the year, an amount superior to the volume of technology acquired by Conti by the end of 2010. On 10 November 2014 the fund reported the accumulation of an all-time high record of 23,132.19 units of technology. The Technology Procurement Revision Act of 12 August 2013 modified the fund’s governing statutes to address the rising cost of technology procurement resulting from intensifying competition and a dwindling supply pool. As funding requirements for 2013 doubled to ƒ4.32 million – twice the fund’s annual state subsidy, the Council of Ten sought to attract private investment to surmount the rising financial challenges and bridge the funding gap. The revised legislation paved the way for the part-privatisation of the fund and advanced its transformation into a fully-fledged commercial entity contracted with the management of public assets. Under the new arrangement, the bailiwick sold a 49.99 per cent stake in the fund to private investors thus retaining a controlling majority stake (a fraction of the profit financed the rehousing of the State Archives to a new state-of-the-art, purpose-built facility adjacent to the Guildhall). The second innovation of the act is the creation of Conti's sovereign wealth fund under the management of the Technology Procurement Fund: the TechFund+. The act prescribes that any excess liquidity created by a government budget surplus or proceeds from the sale of state assets be transferred to the TechFund+. Even then, it remains within the States’ prerogatives to sanction extraordinary public expenditure (unbudgeted appropriations) on a case by case basis. Although it has been the adopted practice to restrict these to city beautification initiatives and projects of scientific, cultural or historical public interest. One such occurrence is the purchase on 14 September 2015 of the Selden Map of China for the benefit of the State Archives (at a cost of ƒ63,000 to the public purse). Urbs Nobilis Contiae